Spotting 2024 – Saturday Outings

Saturday’s are often given over to football or family matters so it’s rare that I get to chase trains. October is turning into an odd month in terms of football fixtures due to cup matches for many clubs at our level. As I’m writing this post we’re playing Hendon away because of cup fixtures from over a month ago! Wingate & Finchley have not been having a good time in the cups but we seem to finally be finding our league form, which is generally more important for the fans. But I digress from the matter in hand.

On the 12th of October, I should have been at a match but it was one of those lost due to cup activity. I also had an issue with my knee, so I was glad of the break. Even so, I decided that I needed to flex it a bit and I chose to go to Stratford. Saturday’s at Stratford in the past were likely to produce a small amount of freight and a steady amount of passenger workings. Even so, it was relatively quiet (though busier than a lot of other London locations). I have some shots from back then. Here’s one of 33203 shifting oil tanks off the Temple Mills branch…

…presumably heading down onto the Southern region via the North London Line – Though tracking down the actual working now would be impossible. This was actually a rare sighting at Stratford – A Slim Jim as we called them – A Class 33 built specifically to work through the narrow tunnels of the Hastings route.

Stratford has changed considerably – very little of what you can see in this photo still exists except, perhaps the platform I’m standing on which would now probably be platform 10, handling most of the eastbound Greater Anglia passenger services. Back then Stratford station was quiet as the grave on a Saturday – just us spotters and a few hardy souls. It’s so different now, more so than even I realised as a weekday visitor. I was treated to large crowds of young men doing ‘likely lad’ impressions and attired appropriately changing trains here to head up towards the Enfield / Chingford area along with equally large numbers of young Women wearing clothing designed more to show rather than hide while staying within the law. I think you get the picture🤣

Despite all the pre-drunk persons passing through the station, I found myself helping out a few normal passengers who mistakenly ended up on platform 10a. My favourite was a young lady with a child in a buggy. I was able to confirm she was on the correct platform for her train after she had expressed a view that the station staff didn’t know what platform the train was expected to be on and that she thought I might have a better idea 😉 Of course she then told me that her young man loved steam trains prompting a fierce denial from him – I suspect Mum probably knows the truth on that one🤣

But the big change from the 1980’s Stratford that I remember was the amount of freight trains booked to go through. Even with a third of them cancelled, I still logged 10 passing through between 11:00 and 14:00. Here’s 66561 on a Garston to Felixstowe North intermodal…

…and 66715 on a Felixstowe North to Hams Hall intermodal…

…66715 bears the name ‘Valour’. Nameplate is designed to resemble those on the Great Central Railway memorial steam locomotive VALOUR and is dedicated to All railway employees that gave their life for their country. It is registered as a War memorial by the Imperial War Museum.

My Saturday trip to Stratford resulted in 178 logged of which I needed 12. I also picked up 5 new for haulage.

The Saturday just gone was a matchday but as it was Dartford, an opportunity to do some trainspotting and get some football in as well😅 I tried to get some good new haulage on this trip but that didn’t really work out although, by the end of the evening I had 3 new Northern Line units for my collection alongside a Class 376 and a ‘700. It just could have been so many more🤣 I did get a couple of nice unit images though. Here’s 375818 at London Bridge on the 12:24 Hastings service…

…taken while I was waiting for the following Gravesend train.

I then enjoyed a hard fought match against Dartford FC…

…which Wingate & Finchley won 3-2, before heading home and getting a nice evening shot of 700004 at Dartford…

…taken as the driver prepares for departure at 19:00 with a service to Rainham.

And tonight’s game against Hendon – The guys just won it 6-1! Proof, if it were needed, that my presence holds them back😉 The weird fixtures run of October continues this week as we once more don’t have a Saturday game. I do have a plan for Saturday but lets wait until I do next week’s post to see if that comes to fruition😅